‘Rediscovering Doggerland- latest member of the Lost Frontiers Project’

Below we have a lovely introduction to one of our newest AEA student members and information on her exciting project!! ENJOY!

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Hello everyone, as a new student member of the AEA, I thought I’d write a small introduction to my project- always good to put a voice out there!

I’ve just started a PhD at the University of Warwick, looking at the application of sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA) as a tool for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. I am very lucky, as I am also part of the Lost Frontiers Project (https://lostfrontiers.teamapp.com), in which my project forms a small part of the wider research within the group.

The Lost Frontiers Project is a project based across the UK, examining the relationship between global climate change during the Early Holocene period and the impact that coastal inundation and the subsequent land-loss had on the plant, animal and Mesolithic human communities of the North Sea plain . From an anthropogenic perspective, the project also aims to explore the relationship between the Mesolithic communities on the Doggerland plain and the known Neolithic communities on mainland Europe, and how this influenced the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in the UK.

Extent of Doggerland (Source: Lost Frontiers Project online)

As part of this team, myself and a fellow sedaDNA PhD student (Becky Cribdon) are looking at the extraction and analysis of sedaDNA taken from cores located in the North Sea (Becky) and the Irish Sea (myself). The overall aim is to provide an additional proxy for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, as well as examining DNA specific issues such as long-term survival in terms of degradation and bias in the record (as experienced with more traditional proxies such as pollen).

As you all have experienced, starting any new project is a pretty daunting process, and this has definitely been no exception to the rule. I’m an archaeologist by trade (mainly based in near-surface geophysics and a bit of consultancy), in which my undergraduate experience in paleoecology led me to this project; so, trying to get my head certain aspects, in particular coding (using Perl), has been the first major challenge…and I’m still battling on! However, I am so excited to get started with the DNA extraction and analysis, as well as working alongside the rest of the Lost Frontiers team.

I look forward to meeting you all at future events and thanks for reading!

Rosie Everett

To showcase your own research, or to simply introduce yourself to the AEA members then email d.spencer1@nuigalway.ie